This post contains spoilers from Monday’s episode ofThe Bachelor.
The truth came out on Monday’s episode ofThe Bachelor.
“To me, that’s a huge ask to say, ‘Don’t tell anyone else you’re falling in love with them and don’t get intimate with anybody else,’ " Clayton, 28, told hostJesse Palmer. “But I told her like I would have, all you had to do was just tell me at any point beforehand. And what made me frustrated was that she told me, ‘Everything you’re saying makes sense and I completely understand where you’re coming from, but with that, I still can’t see us moving forward from this.’ "
Clayton didn’t know where to go from there.
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“I’ll go tonight and I’ll talk with them both and tell them this is everything that happened, this is where I’m at and I will be 1,000 percent transparent,” he decided, adding, “If they were to stick it out after hearing all that, that’s obviously a testament to the love that we have. That obviously is something that’s like, okay, let’s continue.”
ROSE CEREMONY
“What I’m about to say is not going to be easy to hear, but it’s going to be transparent and I owe it to you all,” Clayton said. “Yesterday, Susie told me that if I had told either of you that I was in love or if I had been intimate with either of you, that she could not continue with this journey and that she felt that it was over for us. And so, it just had me questioning everything about what her and I had, and I felt like at the end of it, I couldn’t even really look her in the face and I didn’t know who I was even looking at. I didn’t want to go about it this way.”
ABC
Clayton continued, “But because it became a dealbreaker, like I don’t want that to be a dealbreaker with us. This is the hard part to say but like, I was in love with her, and I was in love with each of you two — I am in love with both of you. And I also was intimate with both of you.”
Clayton assured that he still saw a future with the remaining ladies. “I do see one of you being on the other side of it with me and I don’t have the answers,” he said. “I don’t know who that is. I really don’t. Because I promise if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t string somebody else along.”
“I feel like I can’t breathe,” Rachel said.
“Ultimately whoever I pick I love the most,” he said. “That’s what I’m figuring out is who is the best fit for me. Who do I love the most? And once I make that decision, all the other love, it was real, but it ends there. It didn’t mean I didn’t mean it, I just meant I had a stronger love with somebody else.”
Clayton also touched base with Rachel, who said she felt like their time together “wasn’t special.”
Rachel called this situation “the worst-case scenario,” adding, “It’s so hard to like understand the love that I feel that you could feel for three people.”
Clayton left it up to Rachel if she wanted to leave. “I feel like our love is so worth it,” she said, “but I don’t know if I can handle it.”
First, Clayton extended a rose to Rachel. “I want you to know that everything I’ve said, I do stand behind,” he told the flight instructor. She accepted the rose.
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Clayton said he didn’t mean for it to be a competition. “I see something in us and I wish I could just tell you the perfect thing, but I don’t even know what that is,” he continued. “All I know is that I’m speaking from my heart.”
Clayton described their love as “as real as its gets.”
“I’m still trying to convince you because I believe what we have is special, so it’s like, I don’t want to just let you walk out without trying one last time,” he said.
Craig Sjodin/ABC via Getty
“I think he allowed space for me to feel like what I’m feeling and did like acknowledge what we do have is special and unique,” she said in an on-camera interview. “I can trust that moving forward.”
RELATED VIDEO: Clayton Echard On Why He Was Honest About Intimacy with Both Women and Forced Hard Conversations
GABBY MEETS CLAYTON’S FAMILY
Clayton’s parents and brothers traveled to Iceland to meet his final two suitors.
“You screwed the pooch in my opinion,” Clayton’s dad told him.
“One of them could end up being your future daughter-in-law,” Clayton assured.
While Brian hoped Clayton would make up his own mind. “In the end, I would like to see my son have his own clarity,” he said.
“I was upset last night, but I’m here for a reason,” she said. “I want to be here so bad. Knowing that I could’ve missed out on all of that is really devastating. I do think I made such a good decision.”
RACHEL MEETS CLAYTON’S FAMILY
“I’m excited to meet them, but I’m also feeling really hurt from the rose ceremony,” Rachel confessed to the cameras.
Still, she put on a smile and brought flowers for the Echard family.
“I just really feel like he is perfect for me,” Rachel raved. “I really, really … l do hope it’s him and I at the end because I do, I see him as my husband.”
ABC/Ricky Middlesworth
In an on-camera interview, Kelly revealed she thought Rachel could be Clayton’s future wife. “Maybe she could be the one because she is not leaving or wasn’t going to leave,” Kelly said. “And if she sees it like that then she obviously must see a future with him and maybe sees their relationship different from the others.”
Dad Brian asked Rachel if she trusted Clayton and Rachel said she did. “It’s nice to hear that,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing where your guys' journey ends.”
Rachel told the cameras she thought the day went “amazing,” adding, “I really do see myself fitting in with Clayton’s family.”
Clayton talked with his family about his conundrum. “My heart’s out beyond these walls with Susie,” he said.
However, Brian accused his son of “grasping at straws.”
“When somebody walks away from you, they’re walking away from you and it’s done,” Brian said to Clayton. “It’s finished. I think you’re too caught up in the one that got away.”
Clayton insisted Susie “is a once in a lifetime kind of woman.”
“But then you were intimate with these other two women,” Kelly said. “Why did you screw that up?”
Then, Clayton told host Jesse, 43, “I just want closure with Susie. I just want to talk to her again.”
The Bachelorfinale continues Tuesday (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.
source: people.com
